Okay, not really. I did order about $200 worth of nuts and bolts and the like so I can hopefully avoid a lot of trips to the hardware store for 20 cents worth of hardware. I don't have a Tractor Supply nearby to but in bulk so I found a place online that sells really cheap. I paid .86 cents each for 50 1/4" flat washers. (Less than 1 cent each)
I bought $250 worth of bins to store the hardware in from Amazon. I got a bunch of Amazon gift cards for free by signing up for a credit card so I essentially got the bins at no cost to me. Amazon was the cheapest place to get the bins after factoring in shipping.
I did look on Craigslist for any deal on bulk lots of nut/bolts and didn't find anything worthwhile. One guy is selling 1,700 pounds of nuts and bolts sorted for $800. He doesn't have any pictures or a list of what he has so I decided to pass. I wouldn't have a way to get 1,700 lbs home unless I took the bus and I don't really have $800 to spend on hardware anyhow.
Yes, keep them sorted!
Hung around way too many shops with a disarray of hardware, can't find what you need, when you need it.
Some sort of system other than throwing stuff into the bin.
happy coaching!
buswarrior
The bins I bought are 12x18" metal storage trays with individual compartments inside. The hardware will be placed in the compartments so it stays organized. I am using these trays: http://www.durhammfg.com/catalog.html?id=44 (http://www.durhammfg.com/catalog.html?id=44) A lot of work places use similar metal trays to organize hardware. My employer has a bunch of these same trays full of hardware.
I have all of my electrical terminals and plugs sorted in plastic trays that have individual compartments too.
Do you own anything that uses American bolt sizes and washers I know your bus is full of metric crap
There is a lot of American stuff on my bus too. I buy more inch size stuff at the hardware store than metric. Metric stuff I use is mostly nuts and a few washers.
I'm a nut (no pun intended) for hardware, organized, and plenty of it! Just like that odd tool when you need it, nothing beats going to your fastener stash and finding just what you need. So often I need a dozen and see the bulk price so I just grab an entire box. I have 1000 ways to justify just about anything....
Looking through my last few years' receipts from McFadden-Dale Industrial Hardware in Santa Ana, I've spent WAY more than $200 for all the myriad nuts, bolts, washers, plumbing fittings, valves, DOT airbrake fittings, and the countless other things I never knew existed until I needed them for some arcane project! I now always buy a few more than I need, knowing that sooner or later I'll use those extras. I wonder how many busnuts realize how many hundreds of dollars all these small odds and sods cost during a conversion?
Fortunately McFadden-Dale is only a few miles away, as also is Industrial Metal Supply in Irvine. A typical Saturday morning is a quick trip to both those places to stock up for the following week's tinkering - too bad they don't have Frequent Customer rewards! There's also a surprisingly well-stocked Ace Hardware just down the road, a Home Despot next to my bus's storage yard, and a wonderful used metals place nearby where I get all manner of weird stuff for cents on the dollar. I guess this satisfies the primitive hunter-gatherer instinct in me.
John
As long as it's organized it makes sense --- once it falls into disarray it is no longer valuable.
I used to have an employee (note the used to) that always bought more than he needed an then proceeded to lose it in his truck.
I told him that having so much stuff you can't find anything is the same as not having it at all because you are going to the store to buy another one when you already have one (and yes I did pay for the first ten and then the new one and the trip to get it)
So keep it organized and it is valuable let it get out of sorts and it ain't worth anything
Just my way.
Melbo
Had a cousin that would not keep an xtra nut, bolt or screw. Said if he needed 4 he had three, if he needed 1 1/2 inch he had 1 1/4 and 1 3/4 inch. He was right! JIm
Brian, you already know this, but most hardware type stores stock about the lowest level bolts in terms of strength. Most come from off shore.
Like you, I often use this level of bolt for general assembly. However, I always go to grade 5 or grade 8 for critical bolts.
Jim
All the bolts I bought are grade 5. They hardly cost any more than grade 2. The hardware store closest to me only stocks grade 5 and grade 8 bolts.
When I hit the lottery, I'm gona buy me a Lowes, and a Best buy. Gona put em across the street from the house!!!!!
Quote from: Carbone on March 04, 2012, 04:24:23 PM
So often I need a dozen and see the bulk price so I just grab an entire box. I have 1000 ways to justify just about anything....
I'm exactly like that too - always going for the 'bargain' of spending three times as much to get ten times more than I need. Everything seems to get used eventually though.
Jeremy
It has always been a fantasy to have a stocked bolt bin. Someone gave me the bin a few years ago, but I've never got around to stocking yet. Now I'm holding off because how do I carry a bolt bin in a bus? Maybe mount it in the enclosed trailer, but I think I'm going to have to trade up to a shorter one (I'm at 71' and NC is a 60' state and gestapo about it) so I haven't done that either. I am envious.
I have tried to stop stocking up and things that I might need in the future. I figure that this way I can store the things at the store. Isn't that why they call it a "store" anyway?
Of course, sometimes I just can't help myself.
For someone who full times it doesn't make sense to carry a whole bunch of nuts and bolts. I have a garage to store a small collection of this stuff.
I have a hardware store a mile or two away, but it takes a minimum of 20 minutes to make a trip over there and back. If you were paying a repair person $75 an hour wouldn't you expect him or her to have basic hardware in their truck/van? My time doesn't cost anything, but it can keep me from finishing projects.
The word "store" that we so widely use to describe any type of establishment where we can buy an item, originally came from the phrase "store house", which in biblical times was used to describe a storage type facility for multiple types of items and goods. (think barns and silo's) ;D ;D
In the dreamland of lottery wins...
It is possible to have one of the industrial faster houses maintain a fastener inventory for you.
Same as the big box store, you have a magnificent multi-bin fastener collection, that they will come around and maintain, for a price, or you initially purchase the stock, and you just lift the part number off the bins that are emptying and order replacements.
And, I'm pissed at the big box stores. Cheap means crappy quality control. Proudly go to the industrial fastener supplier near you and for the price, enjoy fasteners that actually fit your tools according to spec.
I'm tired of CRAP @#$^#%^* screw heads that don't fit my screwdrivers.
And if you think Phillip's heads are bad these days, you should see what they have done to the Robertson screws for us Canadians...
happy coaching!
buswarrior